Master Planning Your Facilities

Jordan Public Schools in Minnesota undertook a master plan to analyze their existing facilities for educational and operational efficiency, to work with district and community stakeholders, and to develop strategy to improve all facilities. Jordan Middle School (pictured above) was completely renovated with an updated learning environments for all occupants.
Photo copyright: Brandon Stengel, courtesy of DLR Group

by Sara Guyette, AIA, EFP, LEED AP

Undertaking a district-wide facilities master plan is often an overwhelming task for public school districts. I know, I’ve been in your shoes. Before I joined DLR Group I served as Director of Facilities and Plant Planning, and I personally led capital projects, facility master planning, and facility operations and maintenance at multiple school districts in Minnesota.

During my time working with districts, I recognized that plans are frequently born out of internal and external user frustrations with existing space and facility conditions, compounded by on-going requirements to prioritize projects based on limited funding. Often the most difficult task is planting the seed internally to convince leaders that the timing is right to undertake a large and extremely public planning process amidst many other initiatives the district may have on the docket. My experience has proven those district’s that do recognize the need for a plan, understand the basic master plan concepts, and can link its benefits back to other district goals and initiatives, are often much better positioned to know when and how to start having the conversation with their stakeholders.

Common Challenges Facing School Districts

Realizing potential issues before they escalate is essential in the master planning process. This proactive approach requires districts to look at their facilities and grounds holistically, and to understand how facilities, curriculum, and funding impact each other. Some of the most common problems districts aim to solve through facility master plans include space utilization, capacity concerns, funding requirements, and educational and operational changes.

Space utilization is many times the first indication of a potentially larger enrollment issue within a district, especially when designated spaces are functioning other than intended. Some of the challenges I’ve observed include extra classrooms being used for storage, which may signal a decline in enrollment, or teachers forced to use carts for mobile instruction, which typically translates to enrollment growth. In addition, mismatching classrooms, such as using science classrooms for language studies, depicts a change in educational programming.

Capacity struggles can be felt either in a single building or district-wide. Challenges at a local level may be solved by adjusting school boundaries to allow that building’s enrollment to flux, while challenges across the district are more complex. An increase in overall enrollment necessitates more space and more schools. On the flip side, a decrease in enrollment may require consolidation and selling a portion of the district’s physical inventory.

As a public entity, school district funding is limited. Districts often have more projects and initiatives to accomplish than available funding, which forces districts and communities to prioritize projects in a manageable time frame.

·      Implementing new district-wide educational programs is a significant undertaking. The key to successful deployment is understanding how a new program impacts a district’s facilities; whether it is the expansion of a STEM or special education program, a 1:1 device roll-out, or a change in high-school schedule. During the planning process, I often challenge districts to think about what education will look like in 20 years and work to plan their space around those goals.

·      The annual budgeting cycle is a prime opportunity to uncover operational changes that could result in reduced energy usage and utility costs. Saving operational dollars allows districts to reinvest in better facilities and/or invest in new educational programs.

Master Plan Components

After identifying the challenge(s) to solve, a district can then move forward with a comprehensive master plan. Most master plans involve common components however, each district should customize the process to fit their specific personality, desired outcomes, and to remedy their targeted concerns. Most master plans include the following five elements:

1. Data Gathering: Be prepared to dig everything out of the archives. If a district is working with a consultant to complete a master plan, that firm will need detailed information such as building and site plans, the district’s strategic plan, utility bills, and emergency preparedness and health-life-safety reports, just to name a few. 

2. Enrollment Projections: Most districts prepare state reports annually, and therefore have a solid understanding of short-term enrollment projects. When undertaking a facilities master plan, the need to forecast ten+ years out often calls for an independent demographer to be hired by the district. This long-term knowledge becomes increasingly important if there is noticeable enrollment growth or decline, specifically to establish planning thresholds around student enrollment trends.

3. Curriculum & Instruction: Educators are amazing professionals and can function in almost any environment. A primary goal throughout a master planning process is to define the type of environment learners will best excel given the district’s curriculum and delivery now and in the future. By understanding the preferred instruction delivery model, a master plan effectively aligns the physical environment with curriculum. For example, space needs for project-based learning are much different that space needs for a traditionally delivered curriculum.

4. Facilities Condition Assessments: An assessment of each facility’s building components, including the roof, windows, and mechanical systems, will assist in quantifying the remaining life-cycle of items and estimating a cost for replacement. This information can be merged with new space needs based on educational goals to give each building a Facilities Condition Index (FCI) which helps to determine the cost effectiveness of renovating an existing building or constructing a new facility.

5.  Energy and Sustainability: Utility costs are a significant portion of any district’s budget, and creating a plan to make facilities more efficient also entails making buildings healthier. Master plans can address Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) issues, lighting upgrades, and physical comfort to ultimately make learning environments better for all occupants.

Stakeholder Participation

Master plan components and elements vary district to district, but the one constant is stakeholder participation. Involving the greater community in the planning process is critical to ensure that multiple viewpoints are brought to the table and heard in a transparent manner. Plus, gathering a community of internal (administrators, staff, students) and external (parents, volunteers, business) stakeholders to collaborate often leads to greater consensus of the plan.

The pinnacle of community and district collaboration is often reached with the formation of a core group committee. This committee consists of diverse voices throughout the district and is charged with thoroughly understanding district issues and goals, prioritizing needs over wants, and considering different facility options and costs. The core group’s primary task is to review and analyze community input throughout the process and to make a formal plan recommendation to district leadership and the school board. The final plan includes a recommended budget and implementation timeline, which will vary based on the complexity of issues to be solved and the amount of community participation involved.

When you get to the point of planting that seed because issues need to be addressed, don’t feel like your district has to go it alone. Contact other school districts to learn what they’ve done and reach out to a K-12 educational planning and design firm that can help customize and lead your district through the process. Most of all, take a deep breath and know that having larger conversations with the community is a good thing; as the benefits outweigh the negatives when it comes to planning educational environments that are right-sized, efficient, healthy, and future-ready for both your educators and learners.

About the Author:

Sara Guyette, AIA, EFP, LEED AP, has dedicated much of her career to educational environments and brings a wealth of experience from both the design and district perspective. In addition to being an experienced architect, she previously served as facilities director at multiple school districts in Minnesota, overseeing capital projects, facility master planning, and facility operations and maintenance. Sara leads DLR Group’s K-12 Education practice serving school district clients in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. She is responsible for collaborating with school districts to plan and design facilities that meet the educational needs of local communities.

Photo captions

DLR Group_Master Planning Process images:

A successful master plan derives from a robust effort that ensures stakeholder input. Districts can solicit feedback through a myriad of options, including community meetings, panel presentations, one-on-one conversations, and large group workshops.

DLR Group _Jordan Schools images:

Jordan Public Schools in Minnesota undertook a master plan to analyze their existing facilities for educational and operational efficiency, to work with district and community stakeholders, and to develop strategy to improve all facilities. As part of this effort, Jordan Middle School was completely renovated, resulting in updated learning environments for all occupants.

Future Space: How Audiovisual Technologies Are Changing Where We Work and Learn

By Margot Douaihy

Editor’s note: The following article comes courtesy of our Knowledge Partner AVIXA, the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association. More information is available at avixa.org.

Walk into a company run by today’s digital natives and you may find a space characterized not only by its floor plan, but also by its adaptability. Think mobile devices everywhere, but no assigned desks; collaboration technology throughout. When people meet, it’s via video — and not just in dedicated executive suites, but everywhere. Some workers are collaborating in person; others are patching in from distant offices and interacting with the same content and tools.

Although this “agile office” is not yet mainstream, it’s on the horizon, due in part to the ubiquity and increasing usability of audiovisual (AV) solutions, such as videoconferencing and shared computing interfaces. A similar evolution is happening in classrooms, where learning spaces are being reimagined to foster better interaction and group work.

Technology is changing the way we think about work and life, which, in turn, impacts the places where we work and live. We’re on the cusp of dramatic change, and AV is playing a pivotal role.

Workspace Design: Ready for Anything

Companies are the biggest purchasers of AV solutions. One important reason: Technology-equipped organizations are better positioned to recruit and retain top talent. According to AVIXA’s Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA) report, “a growing faction of corporate America is attempting to create more innovation by bringing employees back to home base. AV technology implementation is the way for companies striving to make the office ‘the place to be,’ in part by improving user experiences.”

Such environments can empower employees to work in ways that match their individual strengths. Technology-rich, multipurpose spaces can also breathe new life into stagnant practices and foster more efficient workflows.

With the growing demand for flexible AV in the workplace comes the need for flexible office designs. Research by design and architecture firm Gensler shows that “coworking has become an essential element to navigating constant change. In 2005, tech workplaces dedicated 89 percent of space to individual desks. Today it’s 25 percent, and by 2025, individual desks may not exist.”

These open, collaborative workspaces have their upside, but they also present challenges. A recent Harvard study found that open-plan offices can hurt productivity because workers feel they lack privacy — being able to hear everyone all the time tends to be either distracting or cause enough to stop talking altogether and actually decrease collaboration.

Audiovisual solutions can play a critical role turning the modern, open workspace into a productive space. AV ecosystems, such as Plantronics’ Habitat Soundscaping, combine audio and video components — as well as non-technical physical elements — to create offices that are more conducive to collaboration. Imagine video displays that appear to be windows or skylights, sounds of nature — specifically flowing water — playing through hidden speakers, and soothingly lit, modular waterfalls. Plantronics has reimagined its own Santa Cruz, Calif., offices with its technology to create an integrated experience. It’s not just the sound of water that employees find calming; actually seeing water — live or on-display — helps complete the cognitive circuit and creates a peaceful environment that reduces the distractions of an open office.

At other companies, the AV experience starts where people often get their first impression: the lobby. Lobby experiences can help energize employees and engage visitors. Take, for example, eBay’s Main Street location in Silicon Valley, created by ESI Design, built by AV integrator Diversified, and brought to life with content imagined by multimedia studio Float4.

Upon entering the lobby, employees, partners, and visitors are immediately greeted by technology that tells the company’s story. Custom-fabricated LED columns and interactive touchscreens display content that intermingles with the environment. The lobby’s centerpiece is a 15-foot videowall where employees and visitors can tap product icons to see how many sold recently on eBay.

“Main Street has infused so much more energy and pride in our employee base,” said Wendy Jones, Senior Vice President of Global Operations at eBay.

Collaboration technologies, then, are the glue that holds together this energized, mobile, tech-savvy workforce. “Video-based collaboration will fuel improved connection and communication among employees in the workplace and remote colleagues, clients, and consultants,” says Craig Park, Principal Consultant at The Sextant Group.

But for all the technical acumen of today’s workers, and their aversion to outdated business practices, collaborative audiovisual solutions deployed in a modern office must be easy to use. There’s no time for onerous bug fixes or downtime. Employees already have many screens in their lives. They expect multi-screen, dynamic workspaces that they can enter instantly for visual immersion. And the AV implemented today must be agile enough to support the next great killer app or workgroup paradigm, whatever it might be.

New York accounting firm CohnReznick built what it calls an "Innovation Lab” in its Manhattan office, giving clients the ability to brainstorm business solutions with CohnReznick staff quickly and efficiently through a combination of AV systems, proprietary software, and data. Software that lets users edit and manipulate documents, videos, graphics, and more on multiple displays, plus a matrix of large touchscreens, form the foundation. The space also includes cameras for videoconferencing and microphones embedded in the room’s ceiling to provide pickup coverage for all seats. The company put additional videowalls in its Chicago and New York City offices so remote participants could join sessions.

“Studies suggest that those organizations that successfully nurture an innovation culture realize increased profit compared to their peers. Unfortunately, many growth companies lack the capability, including access to the latest tools and frameworks and the trained professionals to implement them, to create breakthrough growth,” says Keith Denham, Managing Principal and National Director of CohnReznick Advisory. “We created the Innovation Lab to help clients build a renewed business culture that’s fast and nimble, seizing opportunities before the competition, to get ahead and stay there.”

According to CohnReznick, its teams are now 60 percent faster at solving problems, and from an operations standpoint, they have become 45 percent more cost-efficient since implementing the Lab’s AV solution. And as good as the remote-collaboration capabilities have been, CohnReznick has found that design and strategy work is especially effective when participants are physically in the lab where they can interact with the AV collaboration tools.

“Because the workspace allows us to collaborate in real time with consultants and clients in different locations, our meetings not only have become more productive, but our team has become more aligned with clients,” says Paul Gulbin, Managing Director, CohnReznick Advisory.

The challenge in all this? Integrating AV and collaboration into workspaces so that users can be productive. “The standard worker wants to be able to use elevated technologies without extensive training,” say Shane Springer, CTS-I, an engineer and independent consultant. He’s noticed “a rise of more intelligent automation” and standards that can help employees move from room to room or system to system “without having to relearn the user interface.”

Creative Synthesis and the New Learning Space

Like the corporate campus, the college campus is ripe for innovation. From the AV clubs of yore to 4K displays in anatomy labs, audiovisual solutions and education are inextricable linked.  Makerspaces, “sandboxes” with interactive displays, and interdisciplinary ideation spaces are becoming more common. But for Tim Van Woeart, Senior Project Supervisor for Digital Classroom Services at Rutgers University, active learning is still the dominant learning space trend.

Active-learning rooms can accommodate small groups, host break-out sessions, and support sharing ideas in multimodal, meaningful ways. Regardless of the wired or wireless audiovisual presentation systems, “everyone seems to be getting into the collaboration dynamic now,” Van Woeart says.

Active learning means giving students more agency in the process. “It’s also meeting many of the students’ needs now that were not previously met,” Van Woeart says. “Some students are learning better in smaller groups — at more of a personal and interactive level than in large lecture halls spaces.”  

The Sextant Group’s Craig Park recognizes how active learning gives students more purchase, but he also says, “There are multiple pedagogical models that can be enhanced with AV.” When he consults with faculty, he discusses what teaching modality would be the best fit for their unique pedagogy, and then builds solutions around that modality.

The Indiana University Idea Garden exemplifies the technology-rich “Thinker Space” — an environment designed to ignite student curiosity and encourage cross-disciplinary practices. An energizing interior design and the latest collaborative technologies, such as the Google Jamboard and HTC Vive, help foster innovation.

Virtual reality (VR) labs are also beginning to appear on campuses. At schools like William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., VR labs are replacing obsolete spaces, such as photo development rooms. The debut recently of an affordable, wireless Oculus Quest VR system is being heralded as a disruptor that could help democratize the emerging technology.

“No longer do you have to go to a million-dollar space or CAVE to experience VR,” says Julie Johnston, Director of Learning Spaces for Indiana University’s Information Technology Services. As VR becomes more affordable and manageable, she says, “We need to consider putting it into our classrooms.”

The Indiana University Library Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab (VR/AR Lab) is available to all IU students, faculty, and staff. The real value of VR, as Johnston sees it, comes when the technology is embedded in a curriculum, encouraging students to think, learn, and solve problems in new and experiential ways.

Video collaboration and online lecture capture technologies make classrooms more than a physical space in a building. Designed properly to maximize acoustics, lighting, and sightlines, and integrated with the latest AV conferencing solutions, the campus space extends to rooms of students and lecturers all over the world.

“We can do lot more with lecture capture,” says Van Woeart, “like bringing in professors who are experts in their field, outside of New Jersey.” He shares the example of a graduate-level sports management class in which the instructor, an Olympic gold medalist, taught from Jacksonville, Fla., for 95 percent of the class. “We virtually brought her into the classroom,” he says. “It was an immersive experience for the students, with live interaction.”

Whatever new technology impacts learning-space design, it must be tied to a genuine student need, says Justin Rexing, CTS-D, Audiovisual Design Engineer at Western Kentucky University and owner of the Rexing Consulting Group.

“We have to keep students’ perspectives in mind,” he says. This requires candid discussion, a needs analysis, and involving various stakeholders early in the process. Rexing believes “wise investments in audiovisual solutions can dramatically elevate the classroom experience.”

Margot Douaihy is a writer, editor, and storyteller based in Northampton, MA. She is the author of three books and a contributor to Tech & Learning, Systems Contractor News, and AV Technology Magazine, published by Future Plc. Douaihy is the August 2019 I-Park Foundation Resident Fellow in Writing. Dan Daley and Kirsten Nelson also contributed to this story.

Activate Classroom Design

An Interview with Andrea Durbin, NCIDQ, IIDA, MA+ Architecture

Vendor partners: KI Furniture, Milliken

What was your concept in designing this classroom?

We wanted to design a classroom that would encourage movement during the learning process.

What role does technology play in the space?

The classroom features wireless microphones and speakers allowing more flexibility to the presenters.

How does the design and technology plan encourage attendee interaction?

The classroom design features flexible furniture that allow people to move within the furniture as well as within the space. The sensory paths at the back of the classroom encourage movement to disperse built up energy and stimulate the area of the brain that retains information.

How does the choice of furniture impact the space?

The furniture was a crucial part of the design. The wide range of colors and flexibility of each of the pieces were major contributions to the ‘active’ classroom idea.

What do the flooring choices say about your classroom?

The carpet tile with a cushion backing creates a soft and inviting environment for students to learn, while the LVT at the back of the space adds an additional area for movement and play.

How will this space work for presenters?

The presenters will be able to move freely throughout the space using the wireless technology. The flexible furniture can be reconfigured for group or lecture type environments. Acoustic panels have been places throughout the space to help achieve an acoustically pleasant atmosphere.

What do you see as the largest benefit of being chosen as a design team winner?

We are honored to have the opportunity to serve the design and education community by allowing them to ‘think outside the box’ with us.